No.26 on “The Top 50 U.K. Singles Chart” on my Birth Day
No.26 on "The Top 50 U.K. Singles Chart" on my Birth Day
Adrian (The Archive of My Life)
26 Mar, 2023
The 20th of February 1972
Official U.K. Singles Chart results from Sunday the 20th to Saturday the 26th of February 1972
Cut-off for sales figures was up to the end of Saturday the 19th of February
Results counted from Sunday the 20th,
announced on Tuesday the 22nd,
and broadcast on B.B.C. Radio 1 on Sunday the 27th of February 1972.
John Barry
Theme From “The Persuaders”
At No.26, on the the U.K. Top 50 Singles Chart the day I am born, is John Barrywith the “Theme From “The Persuaders””.
Even though John Barry was nearing the end of his UK Chart run…
…with this theme from a new TV series, he had still been comfortably sitting for the past few weeks in the Top 30.
John (surname Prendergast; middle name Barry;..
…- he dropped the surname) was the youngest of two brothers and one sister in the family.
Born in the cathedral city of York in North Yorkshire, he took on the perfect mix from the talents of both parents. Throwing in the DNA of a classically trained pianist mother and a movie projectionist father, who by then owned a chain of cinemas in the North of England.
The final result would be a son who was brought up on a childhood full of music and film on constant supply, which would spark a fire for him to begin following his passion, with an enthusiasm that firstly led him to be trained by the director of music at York Minster, Francis Jackson..
In addition to this,..
…after turning 18 and receiving his calling papers, he also took on a distance learning course of Jazz music, from Chicago composer/arranger/musician Bill Ruzzo, who himself had studied under Chicago Jazz pianist Lennie Tristano, whose musical tutelage had managed to inspire students such as Bill in his credo with a structured and disciplined manner (two characteristics you wouldn’t usually connect with the music of Jazz).
Whereas Bill had become a trombonist, John’s preferred instrument of choice became the trumpet, while he took on Bill’s Jazz course alongside his time spent in the National Service while out in Cyprus.
Once demobilised, John at first decided to become an arranger for such big bands and orchestras as Ted Heath’s and Larry Parnell’s respectively, and he soon decided to form his own conventional set-up, incorporating instrumentation associated with a big band but combined with electric guitars.
The result was the ‘John Barry Seven’, and it was in those early days of his new group that John even gave singing a bash himself.
It was while he was taking on further commitments,..
…such as arranging music for other acts, which included the Barry Sisters (no relation), and composing arranging and now conducting his first film scores, which starred singer and actor Adam Faith, that the John Barry Seven scored big hits, firstly with the ‘Juke Box Jury’ TV theme and then also ‘Walk Don’t Run’ in 1960.
Most of these talents…
…(probably not so much the singing) gained the attention of a film production company named EON (which stood for ‘Everything Or Nothing’).
They needed assistance to pep up a theme that had been commissioned for a new film coming to the end of it’s production, and were looking for a “new noise” (as Bruce Forsyth succinctly called his style) to give the film some relevance to younger adult audiences and teenagers.
John reworked the arrangement, which so impressed the producers Albert R. Brocolli and Harry Saltzman, that they used the theme for each film in the series since. Thus turning the symbolic tune into its own recognisable icon in the movie soundtrack world, and in turn securing John’s place with EON as the go-to composer and arranger for each subsequent score in their popular movie franchise for the rest of the 1960’s.
From that point,
…the name John Barry would become synonymous with a fresh new musical direction to go with a new era of film.
John would go on to score many other soundtracks, other than for the James Bond’s, including such musical highlights as the primary film of the contrasting secret agent series ‘The Ipcress File’ featuring the protagonist Harry Palmer, played by a fresh new actor who’d got his big break in the film ‘Zulu’, Michael Caine…
John had known Michael…
…for a while at this point, and had even put the then struggling actor up for a couple of weeks at his flat, after Michael had been not so politely evicted from his former digs due to the amount of, let’s just say human traffic, which passed through on a very regular basis.
As Michael recalled…
“He had a lovely flat, and I went to sleep. And I was woken up about an hour later by the piano. John was composing, and all night long, he was on the piano.
This is my first night, I thought, ‘My god, I’m gonna be here two weeks. I’m never gonna get any sleep. He’s gonna be on the piano every night.’
In the morning … I said, ‘What were you composing last night?’
‘This.’ And he played me ‘Goldfinger.’
So, I was the first person in the world to ever hear ‘Goldfinger,’.. and I heard it all night.”
…John carried on writing soundtracks,..
…winning his first Oscar and Golden Globe for the sweeping music to the endearing film ‘Born Free’,..
…and celebrating another of each of those awards,..
…plus also adding a BAFTA to his collection, for his powerful soundtrack of ‘The Lion In Winter’.
The now multi-celebrated composer…
…was not afraid to move with the times either, and began to embrace new technology such as the synthesiser into his orchestrations. Premiering the new sound for EON’s 6th Bond outing ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’.
As the 1960’s drew to a close,..
…the one award which had eluded him was a Grammy. However, he finally achieved one for his outstanding score for the motion picture ‘Midnight Cowboy’.
Since his latest Bond film soundtrack ‘Diamonds Are Forever’,..
…for which the soundtrack had now been released since the previous October, and with the movie itself unleashed into the cinemas on the 30th of December, his next project for the ever growing medium of TV had already started its chart run almost a month before that film had released.
‘The Theme from “The Persuaders”‘,..
…which also features the use of Synthesisers (and with a B side which also had a TV life, as it featured in a ‘Sunsilk’ shampoo commercial), had originally entered the chart on the 5th of December.
It was a bit of a slow burner at first but, (and I’m assuming here) as the show grew in popularity throughout January 1972, so the theme gained momentum.
It may also have had a push, due to Sean Connery’s return outing as 007, although it didn’t feature in that film. However, the listening audience who may have preferred the newer synth sound, which had featured on ‘George Lazenby’s one and only outing in the Bond franchise a couple of years previously, maybe decided to splash their cash on this single rather than the latest soundtrack which had John playing the tables a bit more safe.
For whichever reason, it began it’s slow climb up the charts at the turn of the year, eventually reaching No.13 for a week between the 23rd and 29th of January, before beginning to creep slowly back down the numbers.
After the latest showing at this week’s current position, it will slowly keep falling back, eventually breaking out of the Top 30 on the 5th of March, before disappearing altogether after the 19th of that month with a grand total of 15 weeks on chart.
The “A” Side
John Barry – Theme From “The Persuaders”
The “B” Side
John Barry – The Girl With The Sun In Her Hair
John Barry – The Girl With The Sun In Her Hair (“Sunsilk” TV Commercial)
John Barry – The Girl With The Sun In Her Hair (“Sunsilk” TV Commercial)
Many thanks go to the following YouTube Channels for providing the chance to hear this music, and watch the footage, once again.
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